Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2024 Jun 10;379(1903):20220320.
doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0320. Epub 2024 Apr 22.

Valuing nature: the case of tropical forests and Costa Rica

Alvaro Umaña Quesada  1
Affiliations

Valuing nature: the case of tropical forests and Costa Rica

Alvaro Umaña Quesada. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. .

Abstract

The paper focuses on the failure to account for the value of standing tropical forests, and of ecosystem services in general, in economic decision-making. This blindness to the values of nature has led to overexploitation, degradation and destruction of tropical forests, which, in turn, has also significantly contributed to greenhouse gas emissions. Forest conservation and restoration has a critical role to play in the fight against climate change and brings a vast array of additional benefits, from security in water, energy, food, health and livelihoods to maintaining biodiversity itself as a core component of our living planet. As first Minister of Environment and Energy under President Oscar Arias (1986-1990), I brought these views into societal decision-making in Costa Rica and here I briefly describe how. This article is part of the theme issue 'Bringing nature into decision-making'.

Keywords: biodiversity; economics; forests; global common resources.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

I declare I have no competing interests.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

  • Bringing nature into decision-making.
    Malhi Y, Daily GC. Malhi Y, et al. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024 Jun 10;379(1903):20220313. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0313. Epub 2024 Apr 22. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2024. PMID: 38643790 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

References

    1. Ricardo D. 1911. On the principles of political economy and taxation. London, UK: JM Dent.
    1. Mill JS. 1848. Principles of political economy, book IV, ch. VI. London, UK: JW Parker.
    1. Boulding K. 1966. The economics of the coming spaceship Earth. In Environmental quality in a growing economy (ed. Jarrett H), pp. 3-14. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.
    1. Revelle R, Suess HE. 1957. Carbon dioxide exchange between atmosphere and ocean and the question of an Increase of atmospheric CO during the past decades. Tellus 9, 18-27. (10.1111/j.2153-3490.1957.tb01849.x) - DOI
    1. Stern N. 2006. The economics of climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources